Government House is near the Basin Reserve and the Mt Victoria tunnel in central Wellington. It is where the Governal-General lives when he's in residence in Wellington. The building itself looks huge, is more than 100 years old and has recently been subject to major renovations, 40-50 million dollars' worth. Its grounds are very extensive, considerably moreso than I expected when Karen and I visited on the Open Day on Sunday 10th April. The house and grounds were open to the public both that day and the previous day. Even though we turned up around 30 minutes after opening time on the Sunday, we were told the wait to get inside was likely to take more than 2 hours. Although it would have been nice to have seen inside, I wasn't that desperate! We had a look around the grounds instead.

These photos show the long line to get inside, outside views of Government House (it is very impressive and no doubt fit for the Queen's representative), and the GG's Jaguar. More info about Government House can be found on the official website at www.gg.govt.nz/government-house/house although, surprisingly, at the time this page was compiled the website doesn't appear to be up-to-date.

- Malcolm Sparrow

[Click on the pics to enlarge]